Autonomy, the only remaining option to end Sahara conflict- UN Spokesman

The blunder by UN Envoy for the Sahara Staffan De Mistura in attempting to revive a partition option as a solution to the Sahara conflict is still spilling ink. After Morocco’s foreign minister denounced the obsolete and unfeasible option, the UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq explained that division is no longer on the table and that autonomy is the “remaining option.”

Haq was speaking to the media a few hours after Morocco’s foreign minister reiterated that the Kingdom is not negotiating its sovereignty over the territory but was rather negotiating a regional conflict with a neighboring country, referring to Algeria.

De Mistura resurrected this obsolete division option in April and Morocco firmly rejected it, Bourita said, noting “Morocco refuses even to listen to it.”

Now, de Mistura should tell the international community who are the parties who inspired this idea to him?

Few hours later, Haq took defense of de Mistura to mitigate the failure of a personal envoy short of innovative ideas. Haq said that de Mistura only raised the partition idea as part of his consultations with the parties who rejected it. Autonomy is now the remaining option, he said.

However, Haq answered a part of Bourita’s question in explaining the genesis of the partition concept, which he said was suggested in 2002 by then Algerian President Bouteflika to former UNSG Personal Envoy James Baker.

In the face of the infeasibility of this option, Morocco should “expand” on its autonomy plan, Farhan Haq was quoting de Mistura as telling the Security Council in a leaked briefing.

Bourita made it clear in his statement earlier that the parameters of the autonomy plan can only be discussed when the other parties accept autonomy as a principle.

“This initiative has its red lines, which are non-negotiable, although there is room for details in certain areas,” Bourita said.